Admission requirements
Students need to be enrolled in a BA programme at a university. No prior knowledge of popular-culture studies is required.
Description
Since the rise of Cultural Studies in the 1970s, research and analysis into cinema, television, popular music and popular fiction has become a staple part of the field of English Studies at universities. This course gives students an introduction to English-language popular-culture studies in the form of a series of lectures presented by staff of the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) associated with the BA English programme. The case studies in the analysis of pop-culture texts, in both traditional and new media, presented in the first half of the course will vary from year to year, but the focus will always be on the production, reception and cultural impact of various forms of English-language popular culture. The second half of the course will cover in more detail specific critical methodologies for the study of popular culture, from Stuart Hall’s influential “encoding/decoding” theory to structuralist approaches to popular film genres and the cultural politics of popular music.
Course Objectives
Knowledge: Students will become knowledgeable of the relationship between various forms of popular culture and society: how forms of mass produced popular culture shape identities, how dominant ideologies as well as oppositional views shape forms of popular culture and vice versa, and how older forms of culture are continually re-invented and play an important role in giving “consumers” fictional narratives through which to (critically) engage with and understand key aspects of contemporary society.
Insight: Students will gain insight into the history, research questions and methodologies of the academic discipline of popular-culture studies.
Skills: Students will learn skills that will allow them to identify, research and analyse both intertextual and intercultural relations between forms of popular culture, as well as the ability to identify and study ways in which popular-culture productions play a role in the representation and discussion of wider socio-political issues. As a lecture course, ELPC also teaches students to independently plan and execute their coursework. This will be tested on the basis of a submitted plan of action for the research project to which the final essay (with a reflective component) will be contrasted.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
A written mid-term exam on the material presented in the weeks leading up to the mid-term week.
An individual end-of-term MLA style research essay, or a group (three-person) video-essay of 20 minutes.
Weighing
Mid-term exam (50% of the final grade).
Individual or group essay (50% of the final grade).
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.50 or higher.
Resit
When the final grade is below 5,50 the insufficient part(s) of the coursework need(s) to be retaken.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
An exam consultation moment will be scheduled in due course. Written feedback will be given on the end-of-term MLA essay. Students can contact the tutor with any questions concerning the written feedback provided.
Reading list
This course involves the study of films, TV episodes, songs and other forms of popular culture, as well as the study of academic articles and chapters from books containing both theoretical models as well as practical analyses of works of popular culture. See Brightspace for the weekly reading/viewing schedule
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
ELPC is an on-campus course. Students are expected to come to the lectures and seminars. Recording of lectures will only be done should a serious calamity stop most students from coming to campus. Being on campus with your fellow students and talking to them about the materials before and after class, and developing the skills to listen and take notes during live lectures are all intrinsic aspects of studying at a university – and key transferable skills – around which this course is designed.